Claims of a Breakthrough in Physics Rebutted by Greek Researcher.

A recent publication claims a solution to Zenos paradox and a scientific breakthrough. A Greek researcher indicates some contradictions in such claims and declares the argument invalid.

Athens, Greece (PRWEB) September 30, 2003 -- A publication in the August issue of the highly respected journal Foundations of Physics Letters claims a solution to Zenos paradox and a scientific breakthrough. A Greek researcher indicates some contradictions in such claims and declares the argument invalid.

A paper published in the August issue of Foundations of Physics Letters has highly impressed top scientists around the world. In the paper, "Time and Classical and Quantum Mechanics: Indeterminacy vs. Discontinuity", Peter Lynds, a 27 year old broadcasting school tutor from Wellington, New Zealand, claims that there is a necessary trade off of all precisely determined physical values at a time, for their continuity through time.

Lynds' paper divided the opinion of the journal referees sharply and while some claimed this is ground-breaking work some others insisted it is based on a fundamental misunderstanding of analysis and calculus by the author and recommended its rejection.

Mr. Efthimios Harokopos, a Greek scientist and researcher of Zenos paradoxes, has written a letter to the editor of the journal. In the letter, Harokopos claims there is a hidden contradiction in the argument made by Lynds, which leads, in the best case, in a fallacious argument. Mr. Harokopos said in a telephone interview: "Lynds states that without a continuous and chronological progression through definite indivisible instants in time over an extended interval of time, there can be no time progression (physical or flow of time). But just earlier in the paper, Lynds argues that by nature, a precise instant in time does not have a duration so neither a progression of instants in time and motion in such a progression would be a perpetuation of static frozen motion and as such continuity is impossible. Obviously these two statements are contradictory and Lynds attempts to answer Zeno's paradoxes by introducing another paradox (or better to say contradiction). The absence of a precise static instant in time underlying a physical process could simply mean that time is continuous and all physical magnitudes are continuous as postulated in classical mechanics. In an attempt to deny such a straightforward approach and introduce the concept of indeterminacy for continuity or, as stated in the title of the paper, indeterminacy versus discontinuity, Lynds commits a contradiction and possibly a straw man fallacy. On one hand Lynds claims precise static instants in time do not exist and on the other he asserts that a chronological progression through definite instants of time is required for the flow of time. One can easily see that Lynds' thesis leads to a contradiction in the case of a particle of constant mass M moving with a constant velocity V, which has a precise momentum vector equal to P= MV, at every instant of time or interval. According to Lynds, certainty is traded off for continuity and this applies to all physical values. But his conclusion does not apply in the example I just gave, as no trade off is required for a body with a constant velocity to be moving continuously. Therefore Lynds has not discovered a law of physics and if such trade-off is present under some conditions it does not relate to motion and to Zeno's paradoxes. More importantly, Lynds' conclusions are not falsifiable by observation and do not provide a predictive capacity. In this light, his claims are of a metaphysical nature and in the best case possible such claims relate to some hypothetical mechanism of physical reality, which, even if present, is not required in making calculations and predictions."

In summary, Harokopos argues that the concept of indeterminacy versus discontinuity is of no real value in resolving Zenos paradoxes. According to Harokopos, the paradoxes are not about the non-existence of precise static instants in time and precise physical values but about the impossibility of motion in general in a continuous or discrete space-time. Nevertheless, despite the errors Harokopos attributes to the paper by Lynds he said he was glad to see a revived interest in a 2500 year old paradox that is still unanswered. Harokopos believes that current physics cannot answer Zenos paradoxes and a bolder step is required than the one attempted by Lynds in order to obtain a solution. Harokopos rejects claims that Zenos paradoxes are logical puzzles or that a solution has been already obtained by modern real analysis. His research indicates that Zenos paradoxes successfully challenge the naive Pythagorean perceptions of space-time and a solution would require a complete revision of physics and cosmology, not just analysis based on simple mechanics concepts.

Harokopos has published online a short rebuttal, which can be found at: http://www.geocities.com/eleatis/index.htm

For additional information contact: Christina Sikolas, communications consultant, christinasikolas@yahoo.com